You are here

St Patrick & Fake Snakes

Submitted by O'Grady Financial Group on March 15th, 2019

3.15.19

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Or as my dad used to say…amateur night. Or was that New Year’s Eve…or maybe both. Seems the amateur and the professional Irish come out for the wearing and the drinking of the green.

Not only did St Patrick spread the message of Christianity throughout Ireland, he drove all the snakes into the sea…or so the legend goes. I maintain, there were never any snakes. Ireland is an island. How’d they get there…swim?

Fake snakes. Alright…it’s a metaphor for driving evil out of Ireland. But a pretty good story. How many pretty good stories are we still believing about our financial lives. How many fake snakes are constricting your finances?

Consider these financial snakes:

I can time the market. Let this one sink in over your pint of Guinness. We know the 10-year old bull market’s total return was 17.5% per year. But if you missed the 20 best days, by percentage gain, during those 10-years, the return is chopped in half…8.6%.

That’s not 20-days a year…that’s just 20-days during the whole ten years. If you’re moving in and out, you’ve got to be a pretty good snake driver to not miss those.

I have to borrow money to go to college. No you don’t. I think we all know people who worked their way through college. And who’s to say college is the only option anyway?

I’ve got to retire at 62, 65, or 70…or some other arbitrary number. Why…is that what you want, or is that what our culture says you should do. I say if you’re healthy, why would you ever stop serving God’s other children.

These are just examples…they may or may not apply to your life. The point is, take a closer look at the stories we believe, particularly when it comes to our finances. There’s no excuse for falling for fake snakes no matter how many pints of Guinness you’re packing.